An ambitious federal plan to address homelessness was presented Tuesday to elected officials from the City of Pensacola and Escambia County.
Dr. Joe Savage, a senior regional advisor from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, was invited by Mayor D.C. Reeves to give an overview of the Biden Administration plan, which was unveiled in late 2022.
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“The key point of All In is there is a goal that we have set and we’ve set a goal to see a 25% reduction in homelessness by 2025,” said Savage declared in reference to “All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness.”
Savage said the aim is to build on successes of the 2010 federal strategic plan entitled, “Opening Doors.”
Since, there’s been a slight (4%) uptick in chronic homelessness, but an overall 33% reduction in homelessness, with veteran homelessness down 55%.
For All In, Savage said communities should look at their data and set their own local goals that could be higher or lower than the 25% national goal across the board, adding that the local focus could be more targeted.
“You might look at your own needs and look at your resources and decide, ‘You know what, we can make significant progress by 2025, if we target our resources towards a certain sub-population, if we target our resources towards families or if we target those resources towards veterans.’”
According to Savage, the All-In plan was developed with lots of input from various stakeholders all across the country, especially those with lived experiences, largely through listening sessions and an open online portal.
“The lack of housing supply was one of the top reasons that we heard from folks, then of course, rising rents," said Savage. "Rents are rising and outpacing incomes, in terms of wages." “So, not only is housing out of reach for those who are experiencing homelessness, but housing is becoming out of reach for even your working class, your teachers, your EMTs.”
Other challenges to surface included the criminalization of homelessness — such as making it illegal for people to sit, sleep, or even eat in public places, inadequate access to resources to help people stay in their homes, and fatigue among the people on the front lines of tackling the homeless problem.
The All In homelessness reduction plan is built around six pillars. The three foundation pillars include data-driven evidence, collaboration — particularly with those who have lived experience, and equity at every level.
“We want communities to look at their data and understand, ‘Do we have an over-representation of a particular population of color within our homelessness system,” he began. “We also want you to look at your outcomes (such as) who’s getting into housing, and making sure that those outcomes are also equitable."
The three solution pillars include improved homelessness response, as well as scaling up housing and supports and prevention efforts.
“We’re talking about the housing along with the services that are necessary so that they can remain stably housed; the housing plus drug treatment services, the housing plus the mental health services,” declared Savage.
He suggested local governments can do their part by addressing by reviewing and adjusting their zoning plans and permitting process to help reduce the cost of affordable housing development.
Ultimately, Savage says the federal All In plan requires an “all of community” approach to addressing homelessness from local governments to social service and faith-based programs.
Billions of dollars have been made available to address the nation's homelessness crisis.
Reiterating a point he made throughout his presentation, Savage said local homeless-reduction plans should closely match priorities in the federal strategy to be eligible for max funding.
“The better you are aligned, the higher you will score, the higher you score, the money will come to your community,” he emphasized.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said message received.
“It was made very clear this federal strategic plan will be a key indicator in our ability to get federal support to continue to try to reduce homeless here,” he said during his weekly news conference at city hall. “I think that’s a very important point that was not lost on anyone there.”
Another point not lost on Reeves was the idea of a more unified approach and goal for reducing homelessness in the greater Pensacola area.
“So, our attempt here is to (look at) what can we get alignment on between plans at the County, plans at the City, at the CoC (Opening Doors Northwest Florida), all those things. How do we get in alignment on what those one or two things might be, we can start with that.”
At the very least, Reeves said he hoped the presentation would spark some local conversation about how to move forward on the issue. He said he knows it will within city hall.
